The Complete Patient

Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price FoundationChange often comes in funny ways. Take the debate about raw milk. Earlier this week, food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler, who has close ties to the public health and regulatory communities, issued a diatribe of sorts against the Weston A. Price Foundation and against me for supposedly failing to acknowledge that people can get sick from raw milk.

Now, just a few days later, the lawyer and Sally Fallon, the head of the foundation, are saying some things few would have expected.

Bill Marler, who has been endlessly derisive of raw milk supporters, started things yesterday by posting a comment on his blog in which he suggested strongly that he isn’t as anti-raw-milk as everyone might have assumed. While much derision was still present, his proposal was that raw milk be allowed for sale from farms:

“My problem, and why I seem so 'anti-raw milk,' is that I think we need fairer information out there on the real risks – especially to pregnant women, the elderly and children – children especially, since that is the target consumer.

“So, where is the compromise? I think raw milk if sold, should be sold on farms that are certified by the state and inspected and tested regularly. The farms should be required to have insurance coverage sufficient to cover reasonable damages to their customers. I agree that folks should be able to look the farmer in the eye. I also believe that accurate information on risks should be clearly given and only benefits that are real should be touted.”

Later in the day, Sally Fallon posted a comment on my blog following the previous posting, in which she articulated, more fully than I’ve seen before in writing, that people can indeed become ill from raw milk, and advising producers of raw milk to take extra care in their production methods. (I should note that she has made the statements in talks to farmers and consumers.) Actually, she was responding to a previous posting on the Marler blog comparing the dangers of pasteurized and raw milk, but some of her comments sounded as if they were responding to the original Marler blog tirade:

“ To protect (foodborne illness) victims from such pernicious effects and to protect the general population and our society from wasted time and resources due to milder and more common forms of foodborne illness, we thus consider it imperative that farmers produce raw milk and raw milk products in accordance with the most conscientious standards, from grass-feeding to proper sanitation of bottling equipment. While raw milk contains numerous built-in safety mechanisms (most of which are compromised or destroyed by pasteurization), this safety system can be overwhelmed in extreme situations, such as in confinement dairies where cows are fed a diet based or grains, or where large amounts of pathogens from contaminated water or manure inadvertently get into the milk.

“Furthermore, while we believe that raw milk is itself protective against systemic infection, we still have the responsibility as a society to further investigate how individuals can maximize their immunity to foodborne illness.

“The fact that pasteurized milk, deli meats, spinach, and many other commonly consumed foods present as great a risk or perhaps an even greater risk than raw milk does not excuse farmers from bearing responsibility for their own raw milk products.”

Granted, both of these individuals are continuing to say things likely to offend the other’s camp. And on the big ag/regulator side, it could be that sudden acceptance of raw milk signals an effort by big ag to somehow exploit the explosive growth in interest in the perceived benefits of raw milk.

At this point in time, though, I choose to be optimistic that possibly this is the beginning of a political change affecting food rights. I’ve long argued that raw milk is a proxy issue for the growing regulation of the food supply. Now we have one of the leading food-safety advocates adjusting his view, becoming more tolerant. And we have one of the leading advocates of food rights adjusting her emphasis. It could all be just rhetorical positioning. Hopefully, it’s the beginning of something more.

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To Bob Hayles, yes, it has been a long time. Welcome back. We’ve missed your strong voice.  Right on about how Georgia milk buyers should have reacted.

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Kathryn RussellI’m sorry to report that one of Virginia’s most prominent food rights activists, Kathryn Russell, was killed in a car crash last evening, She was 54, and a an active member of the Virginia Independent Consumer and Farmers Association (VICFA) and a founding member of the National Independent Consumer and Farmers Association (NICFA). She was also a commenter on this blog, and very passionate about food rights. She leaves six children living at home. I had been in frequent contact with Kathryn over the last few months, to participate with Joel Salatin in a program to screen the movie “Fresh!” and discuss the raw milk issue. I’m told by Deborah Stockton, one of her close friends, that the event, schedule for Nov. 7 in Charlottesville, will still be held, since that’s what Kathryn would have wanted.